From the CEO: What’s coming to YouTube in 2026
Jan 21, 2026 [[read-time]] minute read
As we enter 2026, the lines between creativity and technology are blurring, sparking a new era of innovation. This inflection point requires ambitious bets.
YouTube is the epicenter of culture. Our creators are reinventing entertainment and building the media companies of the future, and we continue to be the best place for them to grow a business. YouTube has the scale, community, and technological investments to lead the creative industry into this next era.
As we look ahead, here are our priorities for 2026:
#1: Reinventing entertainment: Creators are the new stars & studios
While technology unlocks new creative possibilities, it’s YouTube creators and artists who are leading the way to reinvent entertainment.
Our creators and artists
Viewers come to YouTube to immerse themselves in the biggest cultural moments. They want a front-row seat to the Super Bowl action from creators like Jesser and Kay Adams, full red carpet coverage from the Oscars and the immersive fandom experience surrounding a Taylor Swift or BTS album release. We offer it all.
YouTubers are buying studio-sized lots in Hollywood and beyond to pioneer new formats and produce beautifully produced, must-see TV. The era of dismissing this content as simply “UGC” is long over. These are shows, built by creators who green-light themselves. Look at Julian Shapiro-Barnum: his upcoming series Outside Tonight is a first-of-its-kind late-night experience built for the digital age. When creators hold the keys to their own production and distribution, the only limit is their imagination.
Every format on every screen
Whether they're watching on a small screen in their hand or the largest screen in their home, viewers choose YouTube for an unmatched breadth of content: long-form, Shorts, music videos, livestreams, podcasts and more.
From niche interests to global trends, viewers are finding what they love on Shorts, which now averages 200 billion daily views. This year we'll bring even more variety to Shorts by integrating different formats – like image posts – directly into the feed, making it easier to stay connected with your favorite creators.
We’re also investing in music, whether it's helping you find your next go-to artist, uncovering the stories behind the songs that move you or making it easier to discover and experience new releases.
YouTube has been #1 in streaming watchtime in the U.S. for nearly three years, according to Nielsen.1 YouTube is the new TV because creators are the new prime time. Ms. Rachel’s two Children's & Family Emmy nominations prove that creators are defining this next era of entertainment. It’s a powerful start, but we need to see more recognition like this.
YouTube TV
Building on our success in the living room, we’re driven by the simple belief that TV should be easy. We’ll soon launch fully customizable multiview and more than 10 specialized YouTube TV plans spanning sports, entertainment and news, all designed to give subscribers more control.
YouTube has become the single best destination for viewers who want limitless ways to watch, and we’re proud to build that very best experience for the next generation.
#2: Building the best place for kids & teens
Kids and teens rely on YouTube to learn and connect, both inside and outside the classroom. According to a 2025 Kantar survey, 93% of 18-27 year old viewers in the U.S. agree that YouTube helps them learn new skills. And according to a 2025 Oxford Economics survey, 79% of U.S. teachers who use YouTube agree it helps students learn. Our goal is to ensure YouTube remains a place for exploration while empowering parents to guide the journey.
When it comes to kids and teens, we have a strong track record of offering age-appropriate experiences, from the launch of the YouTube Kids app in 2015 to a supervised experience for pre-teens in 2021. This year we’ll make it easier for parents to set up new kid accounts and easily switch between accounts, ensuring that everyone in the family is in the right viewing experience.
Last week we announced updates to strengthen and simplify parental controls, reflecting our core belief that parents should decide what’s right for their families. Parents will soon be able to control how much time their kids and teens spend scrolling Shorts, including setting the timer to zero (an industry first).
This is all in service of empowering parents to protect their kids in the digital world, not from the digital world.
#3: Powering the creator economy
YouTube remains the original and largest creator economy. Creators call us home because we offer the most stable path to earn. In the past four years alone, we’ve paid over $100 billion to creators, artists, and media companies. This success fuels economies. In 2024 in the U.S., YouTube’s ecosystem contributed $55 billion to GDP and supported more than 490,000 full-time jobs as creators built businesses and hired employees within their communities.
More ways for creator to earn
For every idea a creator dreams up, we provide the business model to match. This year we’ll continue to invest in different ways to earn, from shopping and brand deals to fan funding features like Jewels and gifts. We know these are important revenue streams, especially outside the U.S., for creators like Santiago Matias, who uses Super Chat donations as a way for fans to influence the outcome of his hit reality series.
We’re focused on making YouTube a premier shopping destination because viewers trust product and brand recommendations from creators, like Vineet Malhotra who drove millions of dollars in YouTube Shopping GMV in 2025. With over 500,000 creators already in YouTube Shopping, we’re focused on frictionless commerce. Soon, when a creator like Christen Dominique recommends a product, you’ll be able to buy it without leaving the YouTube app.
Accelerating brand deals
Brand partnerships are critical, so we’re making it easier for Influencer Marketing Agencies and brands to find and hire creators, and execute successful campaigns through our creator partnerships hub. We’re also giving creators new tools to make these partnerships successful, like the ability to add a link to a brand's site in Shorts or swap out a branded segment once a deal concludes, transforming back catalogs into recurring revenue streams.
We’re committed to building the most diversified economy in the world – one that turns a creator’s unique vision into a sustainable, global business.
#4: Supercharging & safeguarding creativity
For years, AI has been the quiet engine behind our most important innovations, like recommending the next video for you to watch or helping us keep violative content off the platform. To build on this momentum, there are four areas we must get right in 2026:
The new creative frontier
Just as the synthesizer, Photoshop and CGI revolutionized sound and visuals, AI will be a boon to the creatives who are ready to lean in. On average, more than 1M channels used our AI creation tools daily in December. This year you'll be able to create a Short using your own likeness, produce games with a simple text prompt, and experiment with music. Throughout this evolution, AI will remain a tool for expression, not a replacement.
AI transparency & protections
It’s becoming harder to detect what’s real and what’s AI-generated. This is particularly critical when it comes to deepfakes. We clearly label content created by YouTube’s AI products, and creators must disclose when they've created realistic altered or synthetic content. Because labels aren't always enough, we remove any harmful synthetic media that violates our Community Guidelines. We’re also building on the foundation of Content ID – a system our partners have trusted for well over a decade – to equip creators with new tools to manage the use of their likeness in AI-generated content. Finally, we remain committed to protecting creative integrity by supporting critical legislation like the NO FAKES Act.
Managing AI slop
The rise of AI has raised concerns about low-quality content, aka “AI slop.” As an open platform, we allow for a broad range of free expression while ensuring YouTube remains a place where people feel good spending their time. Over the past 20 years, we’ve learned not to impose any preconceived notions on the creator ecosystem. Today, once-odd trends like ASMR and watching other people play video games are mainstream hits. But with this openness comes a responsibility to maintain the high quality viewing experience that people want. To reduce the spread of low quality AI content, we’re actively building on our established systems that have been very successful in combatting spam and clickbait, and reducing the spread of low quality, repetitive content.
Transforming the viewer experience
AI will act as a bridge between curiosity and understanding. In December alone, more than 20 million users learned more about the content they watched through our Ask tool, asking questions like “What’s the story behind this song’s lyrics?” or “What ingredients do I need to make this recipe?” We’re also using AI to make more videos accessible. In December, YouTube averaged more than 6 million daily viewers who watched at least 10 minutes of autodubbed content.
Ultimately, we’re focused on ensuring AI serves the people who make YouTube great: the creators, artists, partners, and billions of viewers looking to capture, experience and share a deeper connection to the world around them.
A bet on the future
I’m often asked to predict who the most important creator on YouTube will be in five or ten years. My answer is always the same: it’s someone you’ve never heard of and that person is starting their channel today. And that's what makes me so energized to continue building the stage for this generation and the ones to come.
1. The Gauge report, as of Jan 2026